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D. Graphic Organizers in the Classroom Activities
Three steps in teaching reading are pre-reading, whilst reading, and post reading. In each step the writer would like to explain the role of
graphic organizers in the classroom activities. Pre- reading
Jones 2004: 149 states: Before you read graphic organizers reminds you of what you
already know about a topic and help you to think about what you want or need to know about the topic you will be reading. By
asking you to use your background knowledge, you can connect or glue yourself to what you are reading which makes the reading
easier and more interesting.
Whilst reading Again Jones 2004: 149 states that:
While you read graphic organizers help you to keep your reading brain alert and awake and focused on what you are reading. They
also help you fix up any confusing passage you come across. They may also ask you to predict or think about what is coming next,
which helps to keep you glued to the reading.
Post reading Finally, Jones 2004: 150 says that graphic organizers remind the
readers of what they read after reading. Graphic organizers also help them to navigate through all the sounds of words to find the most important
ideas in the reading. And to keep what they read in their head. Graphic organizers in this research means any graphic displays that
help the readers obtain the meaning of the text in term of organizing and linking ideas in purpose of finding main idea, explicit information,
implicit information and inference.
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E. Review of Relevant Researches
In this session, the writer discuss about the review relevant research on graphic organizers. The researchers are Chang 2008, Aziz 2004, DiCecco
and Gleason 2002, Jiang and Grabe 2007, and Dye 2000. Chang 2008 states that teachers can use graphic organizers to give a
lecture to their students whether the class is a large first year class or a smaller upper level course. Additionally, teachers can use graphic organizers in their
own reading strategies. Meanwhile, the teacher can use graphic organizers in a lecture in two ways. First, the teacher could use them to prepare their
instruction and second, the teacher could use them as a visual aid for students in a large class.
Furthermore, in reading teaching, graphic organizers allow both the teacher and students keep an overview of what is the topic of discussion at all
times. Moreover, graphic organizers could be used to narrow many ideas written in a linear format to key topics that the teacher would like to discuss in
class. Having only the key words or topics that the teacher would like to explain that allows them the freedom to discuss topics in a structured format
without having a rehearsed instruction. Graphic organizers may make the class more interesting because the teacher has the flexibility to flow from one topic
to the next and can answer questions that may lead students another part of the context in the reading.
Another research comes from Aziz 2004. He states that graphic organizers can help students to be more conscious of identifying patterns and
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relationships between different concepts and hence promote effective meaningful learning while encouraging more active thinking. Graphic
organizers can be used as a tool by teachers when developing their lesson, as well as during a lesson to make learning more meaningful, lasting and
powerful. Besides, Marzano, Pickering and Pollock 2001 in Aziz highlights that graphic organizers combine both the linguistic mode of learning using
words and phrases to describe and the non-linguistic mode using symbols and arrows to represent relationships Graphic organizers thus, encourage and
help students to see and represent relationships between different pieces of content and also between new and existing knowledge. Furthermore,
Ausubel’s learning theory Ausubel, 1962 in Aziz placed central emphasis on the influence of student’s prior knowledge on subsequent meaningful learning.
According to him the single most important factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows and meaningful learning occurs when students
consciously and explicitly link new knowledge to relevant knowledge already in their schema. He adds that the use of Graphic organizers can help teachers
and students enhance meaningful learning and generate excitement and enthusiasm toward learning.
In addition , Alexander et al., 1991; Prawat, 1989 in DiCecco and Gleason 2002 they state that students with LD and other students who
struggle to understand relationships—need instruction that explicitly demonstrates the connectedness of domain knowledge. In addition, Beck et
al., 1989 in DiCecco and Gleason 2002 They state that it is not enough for
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students to acquire factual knowledge; they must also learn how concepts are connected or related to each other. Texts and teacher presentations must
include explanations that connect subordinate concepts to super ordinate concepts. Moreover, Hudson, Lignugaris-Kraft, andMiller, 1993; Moore and
Readence, 1984 in DiCecco and Gleason 2002 state that Graphic organizers GOs are one method that might achieve what textbooks fail to do.
Graphic organizers
are visual portrayals or illustrations that depict relationships among the key concepts taken from the learning task. While, Novak and Gowin 1984
in DiCecco and Gleason 2002 state that they include labels that link concepts in order to highlight relationships. Furthermore, Ausubel 1968 in DiCecco
and Gleason 2002 states once these relationships are understood by a learner, that understanding can be referred to as
relational knowledge,
the term that will be used in this article. Logically, if the source of relational knowledge is
structured and organized, it will be more accessible to the learner Meanwhile, Jiang and Grabe 2007 state that the effectiveness of GOs
seems to have to do with the type of GOs used, and particularly whether or not they are designed to represent the specific discourse structures of a text.
However, in the literature of GO research, not all GOs are constructed to reflect the discourse structures of a text. Many GOs create a very general
frame for listing and sorting information from a text without requiring recognition of how the discourse structure of the text organizes information. If
GOs that represent the discourse structures of a text consistently facilitated reading comprehension, then the problem of ineffective GOs may rest with the
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types of GOs that do not represent the specific discourse structures of a text. In other words, GOs that do not represent the discourse structures of the text may
be less effective than the ones that represent the discourse structures. The incongruence of previous findings warrants a systematic comparison of the
impact of GOs that represent discourse structures of a text and GOs that only reflect the relationships between main ideas of a text. A review of studies
involving different types of GOs may help reveal interesting and important outcomes.
Some important conclusions can be drawn from the current review about the effect of GOs that represent the discourse structures of a text. First, these
GOs have consistently shown to facilitate comprehension of macrostructures and recall of main ideas for an immediate text Armbuster et al., 1987; Guri-
Rosenblit, 1989; Tang, 1992. However, measures of general or overall learning such as comprehension questions, recognition probes, or recall of
factual details did not always seem sensitive enough to measure GO facilitation. Second, the constructor of the GO also influences its effectiveness
in comprehension. GOs constructed by students themselves were found to be more effective than those constructed by teachers Berkowitz, 1986; Moore
Readence, 1984; Spiegel Barufaldi, 1994. The active involvement of readers in constructing a GO, even simply finishing a partially complete
graph, provides them an opportunity for deeper processing of the material than studying organizers produced by others. Third, GOs can be used as pre-
reading or post-reading tasks, but these options produce different effects on
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comprehension. Based on the research to date, graphic post-organizers produced greater effects than graphic advance organizers overall Griffin
Tulbert, 1995; Moore Readence, 1984; Rice, 1994; Spiegel Barufaldi, 1994. Fourth, GO training combined with summarization training seemed to
produce greater effects than organizer training alone Bean et al., 1986; Armbruster et al., 1987; Balajthy Weisberg, 1990. Finally, the length of
treatment period and the educational level of participants are also important factors in the effectiveness of GOs Alvermann Boothby, 1986; Swafford
Alvermann, 1989. Overall, the findings of the above studies are rather consistent; that is, GOs representing the discourse structure of the text can
facilitate the comprehension and retention of content area reading material. More over, Dye 2000 state in his research that graphic organizers are
“visual displays teachers use to organize information in a manner that makes the information easier to understand and learn” Meyen, Vergason, Whelan,
1996, p. 132. Here are some examples of graphic organizers: Venn diagrams, Semantic webs, Genealogical trees, Frames.
Some of these examples can be found in works by Lazear 1991 and Staton 1991. The frame is a more detailed type of graphic organizer; Ellis
1998 described its use in the Content Enhancement Series entitled
The Framing Routine.
The frame is a “twodimensional graphic organizer that allows the teacher to display in an organized manner important information
related to the targeted key topic” p. 5. The graphic organizer has its roots in schema theory. In effect, schema theory states that
new information must be
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The teacher’s task is to ensure that the child has prior knowledge related to the concept and to provide a means to assist
the child in making the necessary connections between what is being taught and the child’s prior knowledge. When people learn something new, they must
retain it for later use. Our knowledge is stored in a scaffold-like hierarchy, which includes our way of organizing the information. According to Slavin
1991, we encode, store, and retrieve information based on this system. Schema theory can be better understood when we examine the cognitive
approach to learning. Furthermore, Curriculum Associates 2007 states that graphic
organizerdemonstrates the effectiveness of graphic rganizers for reading comprehension and writing achievement. In addition to this objective, graphic
organizeralso employs reading comprehension instruction recommendations from the National Reading Panel. Reading comprehension is defined as the
ability to understand and gain meaning from what has been read. Graphic organizersuggests that teachers use independent reading strategies in the
Thinking About the Selection Activity. This program employs multiple instructional strategies, such as prior knowledge activation, collaborative
study, and summarizing, as a means for teachers to gauge students’ comprehension of the writing model. The use of these multiple strategies is
part of effective reading comprehension instruction. “In addition, Almasi, et al. 1996 found that use of comprehension strategies was both a sign of active
engagement and a stimulus for that engagement” Dowhower: 146
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Prior Knowledge Activation “Prior knowledge affects comprehension by creating expectations about
the content, thus directing attention to relevant parts, enabling the reader to infer and elaborate what is being read, to fill in missing or incomplete
information in the text, and to use existing mental structures to construct memory representations that facilitate later use, recall, and reconstruction of
text” NICHD, p. 4-84. Graphic organizer is designed to give students experience with this metacognitive strategy. Prior to reading, Thinking About
the Selectionsection, in the students think about and discuss comprehension questions. These questions provide a purpose for reading. Along with the pre-
reading questions in the Thinking About the Selectionsection of the lesson, important text structure or topic information is provided, when appropriate.
“The more prior knowledge a student has about a subject, and the better he or she understands the purpose for reading it, the more the student will gain from
reading” Monahan, p. 90. Collaborative Study
Collaborative study is defined as learning by working together, as partners or in small groups, on clearly defined tasks NICHD, p. 4–47.
Students who work collaboratively are active and engaged learners. Teachers use collaborative study in the Summarizing the Selectionsection of each lesson
as a metacognitve strategy to guide students towards reading comprehension. Readers teach each other. The readers are encouraged to break down the
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content-area material from ‘teacher-talk’ to ‘kid-talk’ to facilitate learning” NICHD, p. 4–71.
Summarizing through the Use of Graphic Organizers Knowing how to write a summary has relevance to every student in that
the ability transfers to an effective study strategy for all content areas. “ . . the power of writing a summary lay in the fact that it requires readers to evaluate
information and make decisions regarding what represents important ideas and what are supporting details or descriptive details in a way that reconstructs the
main points clearly and logically” Farnan Dahl, p. 1001. Farnan and Dahl continue by stating that the ability to write summaries seems to improve both
retention and recall and reading comprehension. In the Summarizing the Selectionsection, students are instructed to look for main ideas and relevant
details.There is no physical spot for repetitive or irrelevant details. Students also complete the graphic organizers in their own words. Students who use
these recommended techniques will be able to write strong summaries Devine Kania, p. 947.
F. Rationale
Kategori